NDA
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), the body charged with the £73bn job of cleaning up Britain’s radioactive waste, has relaunched its hunt for a chief executive after talks with a candidate broke down over pay. Richard Waite has been acting chief executive since Ian Roxburgh resigned last summer. It is understood that two candidates were shortlisted, but that the NDA could not find the money to match the requirement of its preferred candidate. The NDA has now switched headhunters in a bid to find a boss.
Independent on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Chernobyl
Still inhospitable to humans, the Chernobyl “exclusion zone”, a contaminated 18.6-mile radius around the site of the nuclear reactor explosion of April 26, 1986, is now a nature reserve and teems with wolves, moose, bison, wild boars and bears.
Scotland on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Trident
PLANS TO refurbish Trident nuclear weapons had to be put on hold because US scientists forgot how to manufacture a component of the warhead, a US congressional investigation has revealed. The US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “lost knowledge” of how to make a mysterious but very hazardous material codenamed Fogbank. As a result, the warhead refurbishment programme was put back by at least a year, and racked up an extra $69 million.
Sunday Herald 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Disarmament
Russia yesterday set out its demands for a comprehensive new nuclear weapons agreement with the US to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I) of 1991.
Observer 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Renewables
IT WILL be a “disaster” for green energy if ministers delay giving the go-ahead to controversial plans to string electricity pylons across the Highlands, the renewables industry has warned. The industry is putting mounting pressure on the Scottish government to permit the £320 million, 220-kilometre power line from Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, within the next few weeks.
Sunday Herald 8th Mar 2009 more >>
MINI windmills will be installed on street lights in some areas of Britain in a deal due to be signed with a Scottish wind energy pioneer. David Gordon, chief executive of Glasgow-based Windsave, is understood to be involved in negotiations with three local authorities in England which would see up to 250,000 lights on mainly rural roads and motorways fitted with turbines. The deal would greatly reduce local authority bills, particularly on lights which are on roads that may have a low level of traffic at night.
Scotland on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Climate/Sizewell
Scientists will warn this week that rising sea levels, triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously estimated. There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are melting faster than previously estimated. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – when it presented its most up-to-date report on the likely impact of global warming in 2007 – concluded that sea-level rises of between 20 and 60 centimetres would occur by 2100. Revisions now suggest sea-level rises could easily top a metre by 2100 – a figure that is backed by the US Geological Survey, which this year warned that they could reach as much as 1.5 metres. The Sizewell B nuclear plant has been built on the Suffolk coast, a site that has been earmarked for the construction of several more nuclear plants. However, Sizewell will certainly be affected by rising sea levels. Engineers say they can build concrete walls that will keep out the water throughout the working lives of these new plants. But that is not enough. Nuclear plants may operate for 50 years, but it could take hundreds of years to decommission them. By that time, who knows what sea-level rises and what kinds of inundations the country will be experiencing?
Observer 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Green New Deal
Mr Darling is frustrating a drive by Ed Miliband and Peter Mandelson, the new Energy and Business secretaries, to launch a “low-carbon industrial revolution” to combat climate change and boost business – and threatens to undermine an increasingly close partnership between Mr Brown and President Barack Obama to push the greening of the global economy at next month’s G20 summit in London.Mr Darling defied them by heavily downplaying environmental measures in November’s pre-Budget statement, and has continued to block them as too costly.
Independent on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Peter Hain: Whatever their individual policy merits, identity cards, Trident, nuclear power, Royal Mail part-privatisation and Heathrow’s third runway do not add up to a programme to get the pulse of potential Labour voters racing. They may each reflect the hard politics of very difficult choices that credible, serious government for the long term always requires – and where Cameron’s hypocritical posturing just demonstrates how unfit for power he is. But where is the story in all that; where is the distinctive Labour narrative; where are the Labour values of social justice and freedom? Above all, Labour must be ready with a much more compelling prospectus for progressive government that covers our plans both for overcoming the current financial crisis and for using the power of the state and international co-operation to build a better society. Perhaps above all, Labour must remember how starkly the Stern report demonstrated not just the huge environmental threats from climate change, but the costly economic ones too. Instead of lagging behind, Labour must take the lead on the green agenda.
Independent on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Pakistan
The Pakistan terrorist attack and its aftermath have underlined the violence and corruption at the heart of a nuclear nation.
Sunday Times 8th Mar 2009 more >>
Independent on Sunday 8th Mar 2009 more >>
